The two-day ERCOT 101 course begins with a broad discussion of ERCOT's history and current roles, as well as how ERCOT communicates in the market. This course covers the working group and committee structure (with emphasis on retail committees) as well as what Texas Standard Electronic Transactions (SET) are and how they flow between market participants.  Day 2 provides attendees the opportunity to learn more about the tools available in the Texas retail market, with breakout sessions specific to FasTrak, reports and extracts, and the Texas Market Link.

Day 1:  ERCOT Market Overview

Introduction

• History of ERCOT
• ERCOT overview, roles and communication
• Protocol revision request, system change request, notice of change of information -- overview of processes

Committees

• What are the retail committees and working groups?
• What do the committees and working groups do?

Renewable Energy Credit (REC) Trading Program

• What is the REC program?
• Why is the REC program required?

Data Transport

• Methods and types of data transport

Systems

• Brief overview of ERCOT systems
• What does each system do?

Transactions

• Texas SET Transaction Inventory
• Swimlanes and Transaction Flow

Market Workarounds

• Safety-Net Move-In
• Drop to POLR
• 867_03 Contingency

Day 2:  Day-to-Day Operations

Texas Market Link

• What is the Texas Market Link?
• What is a digital certificate?
• Assigning roles on the Texas Market Link
• Navigation menus
• Available tools

FasTrak

• What is FasTrak?
• Responsibilities of market participants in FasTrak
• Day-to-day issues
• Data extract variance issues
• Required spreadsheets for research
• Additional features available in FasTrak

Reports and Extracts

• Purpose of the various retail reports/extracts
• Who are the reports/extracts available to and why should they be used?
• What do the reports/extracts include?
• Naming conventions and examples of the reports/extracts
• What to do with the data?
• Where and when are the reports/extracts posted?